Diaulula phoca explained

Diaulula phoca is a species of sea slug or dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Discodorididae.^[1]

Taxonomy

This species was originally described under the name Discodoris phoca by Eveline Du Bois-Reymond Marcus and Ernst Gustav Gotthelf Marcus in 1967. It is considered a member of Diaulula because of the presence of caryophyllidia.

Distribution

Distribution of Diaulula phoca includes Florida, Honduras, Costa Rica, Brazil and Panama.

The type locality is west side of the Key Biscayne island, Florida. The holotype is stored in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

Description

The body is oval. Mantle is rigid. Dorsum is covered with small caryophyllidia. Body, rhinophores, and gill are dark purplish brown with numerous small opaque white dots. It is up to 55 mm long.

Ecology

It feeds on sponges.

References

This article incorporates Creative Commons (CC-BY-4.0) text from the reference^[2]

Notes and References

1. Rosenberg, G. (2010). Diaulula phoca (Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus, 1967). In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=532733 on 2012-03-01
2. Goodheart J. A., Ellingson R. A., Vital X. G., Galvão Filho H. C., McCarthy J. B., Medrano S. M., Bhave V. J., García-Méndez K., Jiménez L. M., López G. & Hoover C. A. (2016). "Identification guide to the heterobranch sea slugs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Bocas del Toro, Panama". Marine Biodiversity Records 9(1): 56.